Picture yourself walking somewhere in the forest, happening upon a weird looking insect. From your pocket, you take out a device about the size of a cellphone, stretch out a transparent screen, and scan the insect for instant on-screen information from a satellite-relayed database.

Fiction? Nope.

Once again, folks, another proof that we're in THE FUTURE: Google Vision. Still in early development process, GV is about the size of a cellphone and features a retractable clear screen — "...whose purpose would be to use image recognition and GPS data to tell you what you’re looking at", according to tech designer Callum Peden. The image you'd be scanning would be compared against a database of zillions of objects for info retrieval.

The device could also serve as an horizontal GPS, where you hold the window upfront, and it points you where to go as you look through the clear screen. Good morning, space cadets!

"Durham, USA — July 19, 2006 – In-game advertising takes another leap forward as Funcom and Massive Incorporated introduce interactive advertisement technology in ‘Anarchy Online’. The new technology allows players to interact with dynamic billboards in the game, making for a more memorable and interactive advertisement experience. The new Toyota campaign allows players of the free ‘Anarchy Online’ version to walk up to in-game billboards and interact with it to unveil the sleek new Toyota Yaris. Funcom expects this new move in interactive advertisement to pave the way for future endeavors across the entire games and advertisement industry."

It's like recently, colorreturned asthelatestvisualbonbon / marketing fad in the advertising industry (certainly thanks to Apple's iPod campaign, which started it all). More and more companies are using color as a means to express the various realities of their brands, and also help the consumer express its own personality through the product: You have Adidas with their Adicolor product / campaign, Sony Vaio with their new multicolored FJ Series laptop, Sony Bravia with their "Color. Like no other" ad with the little balls, and many other companies who, through use of color differenciation/color advertising, bring some freshness to their brand.

Is it a metaphor for suggesting a certain "escape from reality", "change from the usual", or simply "difference"? Has our world become so gloomy and dull that we need to be reminded about colors in our lives, and how they bring beauty?Can we see some sort of subliminally suggested desire for global reconciliation?Is color a contemporary icon used to define modernism?

I don't want to go into a multi-chaptered novel, but I definitely see grounds for analysis, here. There would be a very interesting sociological study to produce about the sudden surge of COLOR in marketing today.

Some will say it's not actually that new - Benetton did it in the eighties with their "United Colors of Benetton" campaign, encompassing all the connotation possibilities cited two paragraphs above. While it was a communicational phenomenon, it wasn't representative of a tendancy. Nowadays, color seems like it's spreading as a communication and marketing device.

Remember that Bonkers candy? So full of soury goodness, it was like a thousand little fruit-flavoured nuclear bombs exploded in your mouth. The commercials featured people being hit by giant fruit falling from the sky. They were the epitome* of my saturday mornings.

Here's my tribute to the Bonkers TV legacy.

*Please note: I'm trying to plug sophisticated english words here and there in my postings. I will attribute 50 points to myself everytime I successfully add one, accompanied by the onomatopoeia *cha-ching*.

Her eponymous debut CD, "Madita" (see left picture for cover), is a pure joy to hear. Produced by Vlado Dzihan of Dzihan and Kamien fame, she was first discovered on their internationally-acclaimed album Gran Riserva.

I can't really go on rambling about how good the album is: check out for yourself. Head to Madita's website for samples of her music, galleries, and more about her.

In 500 days, Fiat will be launching their new Fiat 500. In a smart gesture full of online-branded-contenty goodness, they decided to launch a website, originally dubbed Fiat 500 on which you have a chance partake in the fun. Your mission: completely create the Fiat 500 brand image, through a series of fun little exercizes.

For example, you have Fiat 500 Wants A Mascot, where you can draw a mascot for the Fiat500 and send it to them (you can check out what people already came up with here). Then, there's 500 Faces,a fun activity in which you send a pic of you and your friends, and have it morphed with a Fiat product. Also, there's also the Fiat Concept Lab, where you'll customize the Fiat500 the way you want her to look.

Meet the modern-age gramophone: the iDeck. It allows you to dock in your iPod, and have some cool album art displayed as your mp3s are playing. The wide touchscreen actually represents a larger version of your iPod wheel, and you can access various functions from it.Made by genius brit designer Michael Kennedy.

Sorry everyone, I'm not having as much time to post as I'd like to these days, advertising keeps me busy -- AdKrispies NEEDS YOU! Really. If there are any contributors out there interested to write some krunchy goodness here and there, write me por favor, and I'll prepareyou a spot inside my heart.Now - check this out. A box filled with 1000 blank puzzle pieces, and a can of Red Bull Energy Drink. On the box is written: "Bring it on". While I clearly get the message that Red Bull increases concentration, I wonder where this was distributed, to whom, and if it was part of a bigger campaign. Anyone knows?

It was confirmed today that Pink Floyd legend Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett died on July 7th of diabetes-related complications. Barrett formed Pink Floydalong with Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason back in 1965, naming the band after two of his favourite blues artists, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. He suffered an LSD-induced breakdown at the peak of his career, which would be the starting point of his gradual descent into anonymity.

Nevertheless, his contribution to music and the music industry is undeniable and will live on forever, as he now truly rests among the stars.

Another fantastic discovery from Japan, Seiko's ePaper watch features a thin 3 x 9 strip of electronic paper that displays date and time, as well as a constantly altered mosaic pattern -- all in digital ink. the ePaper used in the watch was developed by Seiko Epson and E Ink Corp of the US. Full article here.

This TV ad was created by TBWA Paris for ARTCade, France's ongoing online PlayStation art exhibition. The ad features a dark montage of what goes on in a PS2 gamer's brain. Since the last few years, PlayStation has veered towards the "look and feel" approach for its ads and general communication - an interesting way to bring their "Live in your world, play in ours" signature (and corporate frame of mind) to a higher level.

I like to see ads like these. They remind me that, it doesn't matter if you suck at finding ideas. If you have lots of time, lots of budget, top models and frothy music, you can still get away with something flashy for selling cookies.

Some guy named George Vlosich III apparently had the vocation to become the world's ninth marvel: The Man Who Does Killer Illustrations On An Etch-A-Sketch Gizmo. His website, titled Etched In Time, presents a gallery of his most famous illustrations, a short bio about him, how he works, and more. Friends, this is worth a see.

I can only imagine most of you have had an Etch-A-Sketch in your childhood. Doodling took a very-hard-to-produce turn in the 20th Century thanks to Etch-A-Sketch. It was great fun drawing staircase-shaped flowers, staircase-shaped houses, or your staircase-shaped parents. Who cares if it was bad, you'd just sha-ha-sha-ha-sha-hake it away, and start a new one.

This guy. He can't shake it. Due to the complexity of his illustrations and the rather global nature of the Etch-A-Sketch eraser, he cannot make a SINGLE mistake. Hours of practice, thorough preparation and Dalai-Lama-like patience yield results like what is shown below.This man, friends. THIS MAN knows how to twist a knob like a pro. Salute.

Some of you may have experimented the profound, often humiliating hurt that a bad sunburn provides. Well, while Sundown Sunscreen might not be much in terms of writing songs about it, they'll certainly provide you with the right tools for the job.

This nice little viral site, titled Ooouch, let's you play on a keyboard made of burnt ladies, who exclaim *Aie!* ("ouch" in most latin-rooted languages) in different notes as you play them. Hence you can come up with interesting Aie tunes (wait...no.) to celebrate the joyful, reddish melancoly of forgetting to put on sunscreen.

Fun for you = good for the brand. That's the equation for successful viral. (Thanks Culture-Buzz)

Jung Von Matt. These people will never stop to impress me. I mean, look at this ad for Mini, in Zurich. Stick a trompe-l'oeil of a Mini on a subway station, and voilà, instant funnay/brilliant communication.

- Mini: "Guys, we need to say that Mini is surprisingly bigger than most people think".- Jung Von Matt: "Pff. Got anything harder?"

I'm such a fanboy.

A Golden Lion at Cannes for "Best Use Of Ambient Media", this ad wins my Golden Pat In The Back for "Best Use Of Brains". Agency: Jung Von Matt Zurich (Thanks Coolzor!)

In case you don't know Jacques Tati, he's probably the most brilliant filmmaker/art director to ever grace the 20th century, and his best movie (in my humble opinion),"Playtime", is simply a visual masterpiece.

In Wikipedia's words : "In Playtime, Tati's character M. Hulot and a group of American tourists lose themselves in a futuristic glass-and-steel Paris, where only human nature and a few hints of old Paris emerge to breathe life into the city. New technologies, billed as conveniences, are satirized as merely complicating life, an interference to natural human interaction. Playtime depended greatly on visual effects and sight humor, and Tati consequently shot the film on the high-resolution 70mm film format."

The film was shot over four years (1964-1967), and featured the biggest budget in the french film industry at the time. Jacques Tati completely recreated his vision of a "modern paris" by building what he called "Tativille" in Saint-Meurice, southeast of Paris - the place was so big it had its own electric power plant.

What's particular about Playtime is that it has no plot whatsoever. There's no story to follow. One might deem the film particularly boring if searching for traditional notions of storytelling. Tati is not a storyteller per se, rather a fantastic painter of modern society and all its vicissitudes.

I've decided to replace my weekly friday squirrel posting by a weekly Vintage TV post. While some of you might actually miss the squirrely goodness, I'm sure you'll twice appreciate my research of gems from your childhood saturday mornings. If you have any special requests, post a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Now, here's today's morsel: 1969 US McDonald's propagan-er...commercial for hiring new employees. See how proud these middle-aged men are of making their living at McD's.

Now I'm certain you all will be able to find many levels of understanding to this ad. Especially in the first few seconds of the commercial, right when the gentleman explains how the game is played. I had to rewind a few times to make sure I heard right. This thing had 1960's american kids spinning their pennies at everyone on the streets.

A SuperMario interactive desktop background. Works on PC, and apparently on a Mac too. Just read the page's FAQ to find out how to install it for both versions, and impress your colleagues with this surabundance of old school cuteness.

Now, isn't that the paramount of cute. Introducing the Selk'bag, a new sleeping bag design that transforms your typical camper into a "deep woods" Teletubby. Perfect for sleeping, even better for running away from bears in style, the Selk'bag gives you full mobility and body-hugging comfort.

As you may not know, camping is second nature to me (no pun intended, copyright:me), and this gets my award for coolest gizmo of the year. I want one. Desperately. Now.

YOU WANT TO BE THE COOLEST MINX in your agency/office? Get yourself this ah-bsoluteh-ly fah-bulous USB Fondue Set. This, friends. THIS, is the modern officemaker's companion. Your friends, family and colleagues will think you are DA MAN (even if you're a lady, with a cosmofonduetron set like that, you are da man).

Featuring a blue LED glowing heater, an LCD screen that displays current temperature, USB connection, and little forks. The Fundue can even display the name of Mp3s as you play them on your computer. Now I call that, THE FUTURE. As if all this goodness wasn't enough, they even packed a little recipe booklet filled with simple, office-friendly recipes to help you cook out a mean 8 o'clock for those long photoshop/powerpoint evenings. You can buy this little wonder over at ThinkGeek.

(btw, Lynx is the same as Axe, only for UK and Ireland. I don't really know why they changed the name. Maybe in Germany they'll call it Links, and you'll actually attract wild sausage. Who knows what they'll think of for France.)

This is hilarious. This guy Tom Ericksen got totally knackered at Cannes, and buried his agency's Lion somewhere at the Palm Beach Casino beach. He's set up a web page for people to help him find it back.

A simple and very brilliant poster ad for Amnesty International. Roughly adapted, the title says: "Signing brings change", and I think you'll get the picture. Courtesy of Allard-Johnson Communications Montreal.

AN INNOVATIVE, MEDIA-CONVERGENT idea from Sony: the Playstation Spot, a public interactive Wi-Fi hub that features downloadable games and content for your PSP device. Already extremely popular in Japan, the Playstation Spot is currently hitting Western Europe and Australia with 300 new Wi-Fi hubs available in stores, shopping malls, and some other public venues.

You can only marvel at possibilities of this new hub: mp3 downloads, videos, game previews, even streaming TV feeds - but I'm sure Sony already thought of it all. They're just waiting for society to catch up with them. Very zen.

The Playstation Spot, as featured in Sony's booth at E3 Expo 2006 in L.A.

Find out what kind of kung-fu it takes to become master of the Dew. This should be a lesson kids: when you write a TV spot, don't forget to start with "The camera opens on a vast, canyon-side view of a Shaolin temple." That kind of thinking will get you places. (Via AdCritic)